tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30951075749971621862018-09-16T21:39:59.215-07:00The Way of the StrangersGraeme Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114812469478973115noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3095107574997162186.post-64299902390420313982017-10-09T07:12:00.002-07:002017-10-09T07:12:49.891-07:00Finalist: Governor General's Literary Award<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I'm delighted and humbled to be a non-fiction finalist for a Governor General's Literary Award, which recognizes literary work by Canadian authors. Details <a href="http://ggbooks.ca/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /><br />Congratulations to my fellow finalists.</div>Graeme Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114812469478973115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3095107574997162186.post-50199975970424542152017-10-04T07:13:00.000-07:002017-10-09T07:38:58.190-07:00The statistics of mass killing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">After the Las Vegas shooting, the largest mass shooting in U.S. history, the ghoulish debate resumed over the demographics of killers. Are they white? Immigrants? Muslims? Christians? Young? One thing is certain: they're almost all men.<br /><br />I look at these questions -- and the impulse to ask these questions in the first place -- in <i><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/10/vegas-shooter/542019/?utm_source=twb" target="_blank">The Atlantic</a></i>. This is not the first instance of a statistically-based report on terrorism <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/08/isis-foreign-fighters/537279/" target="_blank">dissolving</a> under scrutiny.<br /><br />(Also worth a look: Daniel Engber's discussion of the same topics in <i><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/10/what_the_white_mass_shooter_myth_gets_right_and_wrong_about_killers_demographics.html" target="_blank">Slate</a></i>.)</div>Graeme Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114812469478973115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3095107574997162186.post-76765443157173339552017-10-02T07:22:00.000-07:002017-10-09T07:30:45.970-07:00The Islamic State has claimed the Las Vegas shooting<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/10/isis-amaq-las-vegas/541746/" target="_blank">Why I'm not dismissing the claim out of hand</a>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TdQuDIAHoY0/WduIBThnaAI/AAAAAAAB2BI/3Q3UbT-GzA49MhJf2C_zH1vI7tX_wJHQwCLcBGAs/s1600/DLJvFfZW0AIA9pr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="1200" height="201" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TdQuDIAHoY0/WduIBThnaAI/AAAAAAAB2BI/3Q3UbT-GzA49MhJf2C_zH1vI7tX_wJHQwCLcBGAs/s320/DLJvFfZW0AIA9pr.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div>Graeme Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114812469478973115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3095107574997162186.post-10978285399831230962017-09-22T07:32:00.000-07:002017-10-09T07:33:14.893-07:00Going undercover<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I have never misrepresented myself in speaking with an Islamic State supporter. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/09/embedded-with-the-alt-right/540834/" target="_blank">Here</a> I reflect on the ethics of lying to sources, in the context of a white supremacist infiltration project.</div>Graeme Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114812469478973115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3095107574997162186.post-27926484978724326312017-08-19T07:36:00.000-07:002017-10-09T07:37:50.919-07:00A botched opportunity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The United Nations Office of Counterterrorism just issued a report, based on interviews with a tiny number of incarcerated Islamic State supporters. Its conclusions are <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/08/isis-foreign-fighters/537279/" target="_blank">almost worthless</a>.</div>Graeme Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114812469478973115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3095107574997162186.post-58356305534109178292017-08-15T07:49:00.000-07:002017-10-09T07:53:28.201-07:00How the Islamic State made jihad religious again<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Sebastian Gorka, the terror-maestro of the Trump White House, argues that jihadism is a unified front, and that policy should reflect that. He remains wrong. But many of those who disagree with him share the general view that the distinctions between Al Qaida and the Islamic State are, in the main, cosmetic.<br /><br />I <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/2017-08-15/true-believers" target="_blank">reviewed</a> Ali Soufan's <i>The Anatomy of Terror</i>&nbsp;in the latest issue of <i>Foreign Affairs</i>.</div>Graeme Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114812469478973115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3095107574997162186.post-50874129655306919572017-07-25T07:39:00.000-07:002017-10-09T07:40:54.980-07:00The nuclear option<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The Islamic State <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/07/why-hasnt-isis-nuked-us-yet/534738/" target="_blank">had it</a>, but didn't use it. Why?</div>Graeme Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114812469478973115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3095107574997162186.post-39917894007028024132017-05-24T07:54:00.000-07:002017-10-09T07:55:05.246-07:00Evil losers?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Are the Islamic State's fighters "evil losers"? Well, <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/trump-evil-losers-isis-insult-article-1.3192596" target="_blank">sort of</a>.</div>Graeme Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114812469478973115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3095107574997162186.post-32372872235037544152017-05-01T07:41:00.000-07:002017-10-09T07:45:00.693-07:00The rise and fall of Sebastian Gorka<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The reports of Sebastian Gorka's departure from the White House seem to be exaggerated. I read his book, <i>Defeating Jihad</i>&nbsp;(Regnery, 2016), so you don't have to.<br /><br />Gorka is wrong about almost everything, but <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/05/gorka-radical-islam-counterterrorism/524913/" target="_blank">not as wrong</a> as his critics think.</div>Graeme Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114812469478973115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3095107574997162186.post-28104279914305179472017-01-27T07:45:00.000-08:002017-10-09T07:47:29.239-07:00The Trump "Muslim ban"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Donald Trump's proposed ban on immigration from several Muslim-majority countries is <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/01/trump-executive-order-immigration-terrorism/514637/" target="_blank">misguided</a>.</div>Graeme Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114812469478973115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3095107574997162186.post-26705989870559797582017-01-09T19:48:00.000-08:002017-01-09T19:52:19.823-08:00An American in Paradise<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-is9VEQBbhXs/WHRWHyaA7uI/AAAAAAABm5w/MmMR26uce7UVsQzCUc-6qKq1J1R7_na-ACEw/s1600/20140514-ybahrumi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-is9VEQBbhXs/WHRWHyaA7uI/AAAAAAABm5w/MmMR26uce7UVsQzCUc-6qKq1J1R7_na-ACEw/s320/20140514-ybahrumi.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The highest-ranking American in the Islamic State is a 33-year-old convert from Plano, Texas, named John Georgelas. He is the youngest in a dynasty of Greek-American military officers -- his grandfather was a U.S. Army colonel, his father a U.S. Air Force colonel -- and John has been wounded in action in Syria as a soldier of the Islamic State.<br /><br />Georgelas's story -- including the story of the dramatic escape of his British Bengali wife and four children -- is told exclusively in&nbsp;<i>The Way of the Strangers</i>.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A8hF_cfDjb8/WHRaW3yO1TI/AAAAAAABm6A/oS3MeChuBL0Y2G-p7jc8xkLr2KUAIr18QCLcB/s1600/ybahrumi-av1-96x96.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A8hF_cfDjb8/WHRaW3yO1TI/AAAAAAABm6A/oS3MeChuBL0Y2G-p7jc8xkLr2KUAIr18QCLcB/s1600/ybahrumi-av1-96x96.jpg" /></a></div>The current issue of <i>The Atlantic</i>&nbsp;has published an <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/03/the-american-leader-in-the-islamic-state/510872/" target="_blank">excerpt</a> from my book, detailing Georgelas's life and development. Watch this space, where I'll post more photographs of John, as well as excerpts from his writing and new clues about his current activities.<br /><br /></div>Graeme Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12114812469478973115noreply@blogger.com